The public first saw the Don Quichotte album by Bohuslav Reynek (1892-1971) at the opening of an exhibition at the Jean Damien bookshop in Grenoble on 7 November 1960. The Czech engraver, who dreamed of arid, fragrant southern landscapes all his life, had long been interested in the epic tale about Cervantes’ hero. This set of 14 prints dedicated to the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance, the artist’s only work based on a literary theme, attained its most accomplished form and definitive composition in the Don Quichotte series. Czechs saw it for the first time on 2 April 1965 at the opening of an exhibition in Brno attesting to the creativity of the artist, who was unknown to the general public until then.
In this book, two authors who were close to the artist during his lifetime and know his work recount the genesis of Reynek’s Don Quichotte. Its scenes spring to life in Petrkov, the village in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands where the artist lived and set his visions in the snowy landscapes of Central Europe. Today we are presenting these previously unpublished texts, illustrated with Reynek’s prints and plates and supplemented by art historian Jiří Šerých’s moving recollections, Je to už dávno – Il y a bien longtemps.